Solar Challenge

If you spot one of these on the open road...don't panic. It's not an invasion, we're about to be overrun form by enthusiasts committed to eliminating our alien and wasteful use of fossil fuels. On October the 17th, 41 solar cars will leave Darwin for Adelaide in this year's World Solar Car Challenge. The following day, 25 Solar Cycle Teams will also harness the power of the sun to assist them as they pedal from Alice Springs to Adelaide. And it's as much about patience as technological know-how. "We just want to finish the race and we think we can do that in about 51 kilometres an hour." "And you don't care how long it takes?" "No, no were going to do it." More than three thousand kilometres and just over fifty kilometres an hour sounds to many of us like a sentence rather than a service to humanity. These guys form the SA Solar Car Consortium will be travelling a bit faster, but their machine...NED 26... doesn't have the throaty grunt of a V8 more the slow purr of battery powered homemade creation. The team is still straightening out a few problems. In striving for the lightest possible car they opted for wheels made of aluminium not the strongest of materials. Now it's time to try carbon fibre in the push for efficiency and durability. "Because we've got so little energy to use everything has to be designed almost to perfection so that the wheels stay in contact with the ground and perfectly aligned whenever it goes over a bump or cattle grid or whatever." "So we've got university students who are not mechanics coming up with new ideas that even the car industry sort of says wow maybe we could use that. Honda showed that with a ninety kilometres average speed from Darwin to Adelaide on just sunshine and Honda has now embarked on new products from those engineers who went to a race, the race for the future."

The Honda team carried two people with a passenger getting a rear view perspective of this outback highway for more than three days. Now the Solar Car consortium is pushing for a world first, two occupants facing the same way. "Well it's very smooth and relaxing in here. In fact if I was in the race I think I'd find it hard it difficult to stay awake. As a passenger it's my job to record the solar radiation, the speed we're doing, the cabin temperatures and the batter energy we're generating. Now there's quite a bit of testing that goes into this to work out race logistics and things like that. In fact before the big race they still have to work out someway to fit in a ventilation system and also some radio communications." As far as I'm concerned ventilation is the most pressing issue, with temperatures expected to exceed fifty degrees centigrade out on the open road. You don't need to undergo such hardship to marvel at these machines. At the completion of the race the cars and solar cycles will be on display at Victoria Park on Sunday October 24th.

For more information you can email info@postcards-sa.com.au